"Walking on Yellow" by Alexey Adonin
Coming of Age by Athena Nassar
tonight i eat my dog in a fever dream
the internet says i’m too young to have a heart so i forgive
myself for the slaughter actually i let her outside and i let her
for too long i search for her somewhere between my house
and the river where the dead fish lie belly up a heart
should be there beating
just under the water running with blue
flesh i do not claim to be humane
in the coming-of-age film
where i bite off my mother’s hand and grow into
a better person after i have swallowed the hand
i blame the mouth for its hunger
i blame the dog for running
tonight the river begs to feed on the marrow
of some wild animal its throat blue with transparency
with smaller rivers with little tongues lapping
at my feet the internet says a dream is runoff
from a past life but i have yet to let a life pass
i stick my arm in the stream and pull out the meat
of the world thrashing its cold body against
my wet face before slipping back into the stream
i grow tired of looking for the living in the mouth
of the dead so i return to my house without the dog
tuck my tail between my legs and ask for another dog
one with brown spots and no teeth promise
i won’t let her slip down into the river this time only
this time i sleep tonight my dog scratching at the door
the internet says i’m too young to have a heart so i forgive
myself for the slaughter actually i let her outside and i let her
for too long i search for her somewhere between my house
and the river where the dead fish lie belly up a heart
should be there beating
just under the water running with blue
flesh i do not claim to be humane
in the coming-of-age film
where i bite off my mother’s hand and grow into
a better person after i have swallowed the hand
i blame the mouth for its hunger
i blame the dog for running
tonight the river begs to feed on the marrow
of some wild animal its throat blue with transparency
with smaller rivers with little tongues lapping
at my feet the internet says a dream is runoff
from a past life but i have yet to let a life pass
i stick my arm in the stream and pull out the meat
of the world thrashing its cold body against
my wet face before slipping back into the stream
i grow tired of looking for the living in the mouth
of the dead so i return to my house without the dog
tuck my tail between my legs and ask for another dog
one with brown spots and no teeth promise
i won’t let her slip down into the river this time only
this time i sleep tonight my dog scratching at the door
Athena Nassar is an Egyptian-American poet and essayist from Atlanta, Georgia. She is an undergraduate student at Emerson College and Interlochen Arts Academy alum. She is the recipient of the 2019 Scholastic National Gold Medal Portfolio Award among other honors. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Chattahoochee Review, Lake Effect, The Best Teen Writing of 2019, DIALOGIST, Riggwelter, and elsewhere. Currently, she is a feature writer for Five Cent Sound and Atlas Magazine at Emerson College, as well as a poetry reader for the Emerson Review.
Alexey Adonin is a Jerusalem based abstract-surrealist artist. His works have been showcased locally and internationally and are held in private collections around the world. Alexey uses a unique and beautiful technique in which he layers oil paints solely on top of one another to create a mystical, transparent look. His philosophy stems from the idea that one's reality is made up of what they believe it to be. Alexey uses his art as a platform to express his profound ideas about reality, humanity, and their intertwined behaviors. You can view more at www.alexeyadoninart.com.
